We hope this message finds you well! We have a lot of updates to share with you!

Before we jump in, we should note that we’ve heard from a few backers who are planning to give MM5 as a gift for the holidays. Please know that we are doing all we can to make this happen, but frankly, it’s going to be very close.

At the moment, the earliest we might begin shipping is the week of December 4th. However, this estimate relies on a number of components arriving in time for us to finish the final QA and assembly. We’re doing all we can to speed these things along, but this is a complex project. We want to make sure everything meets our standards of quality, so let's walk through everything! 👀

First off, we're happy to report that many of the key components, including a number of Mini Museums are already complete. Our casting partner has completed the entire run of Small and Educational acrylic Mini Museums versions, and the team at MMHQ has assembled the entire run of Touch Mini Museums as well. These items will head to the warehouse very soon.
 

Speaking of the warehouse, the custom display boxes and microfiber pouches for the acrylic Mini Museums are expected to arrive next week. As you may recall, production on these components finished at the end of September, but we were concerned they might not arrive in time if we shipped everything ocean freight. So, we reworked the shipment and air freighted everything we would need for backers and sent the remaining boxes by sea. It was a fairly hefty expense, but better to avoid waiting for customs at this time of year.

Our main focus right now is the Companion Guide and the Large Acrylic Mini Museums. The Large is in production with our casting partner now, and with the Educational version experience (which has the same specimens) we expect they'll move along at a good pace.

The Companion Guide is getting a final pass-through and will head to the printer next week.

Producing the Companion Guide book has taken us a little longer than expected due to the number of specimens in this Edition. However, we print domestically here in the USA so there should be no transportation/customs issues, but it does take time to print and bind the books.

So all in all, we are very close to the finish, but there's still a lot to do. To make sure we're keeping everyone in the loop we’ll update on progress in two weeks regardless of status. This will enable backers planning on gifting MM5 to make backup plans (if needed.)

In addition to the primary Mini Museum production, the new run of Mini Museum stands arrived at our warehouse yesterday! That's another box checked!

Please Note: We made a fair amount of extra stands so you may see them for sale in the public shop. Not to worry, we've set aside all of the stands for pledges and plenty more for backers who may have missed this item during the campaign. Extra stands will also be available in the Pledge Manager at the campaign discount price, so we recommend purchasing there once they are available!

Pin production is complete and received! All 6 MM5 Specimen Pins arrived in the office last week and we are so excited to share the first look with you!

We want to thank all of our pin artists for helping us with this project. It has been fantastic to work with each of you!

We are still working to finish a few MM5-specific add-ons. The main gating factor here is the glass-topped rikers that we use to house many of our single specimens. We manufacture these domestically and material shortages have been an ongoing issue since the pandemic.

Depending on the timing of the Companion Guides, we may launch the Pledge Manager without these items and then bring them to backers first once they are ready. It's not ideal, but rest assured we won’t let this stop us from shipping pledges once all components arrive.

As you may imagine, shipping (let alone assembly and QA) in early to mid-December is going to be hectic. This is the busiest time of year for shipping, so we’ve already made plans to stage more people in the warehouse. This will allow us to run two fulfillment lines, and our carriers also know to expect higher volume as well.

Want to be in the MM5 Companion Guide? We still have space for you! Email us a photo at [email protected] of you and your Mini Museum before the end of the day on Monday, November 6th. After that, we'll be finalizing the MM5 Backer Collage. Don't miss out!

With so much to do, it's hard sometimes to remember to pause and breathe. So it was really pleasant to see this deep dive video from the Nautilus Exploration Program cross our feeds.

This dive captures the casual exploration of a dramatic basaltic column formation 1,700 meters below the surface of the ocean near the Hawaiian island of Molokai. There's even a special Monkfish visitor, taking a rest on these geologic wonders.

This fascinating and fun look at the world underneath the waves is also part of a serious scientific mission to map the hidden world of the ocean floor.

Voyages like this inform our understanding of the world, and they are also the kind of hands-on adventure that makes the exploration worthwhile.

That's all for now. See you soon in the next update!